Max Kakacek has called Chicago home for all of his 35 years. He grew up in North Center, went through the Chicago Public Schools system, and has performed across the city as part of Whitney, the folk-rock band he co-founded with Julien Ehrlich.
But in summer 2023, Kakacek was getting ready to finally leave. He planned to move to Los Angeles the following spring to be closer to his girlfriend.
“At the time, that’s what I thought I needed,” Kakacek said. Still, he added, “It was scary.”
Kakacek treated that summer like it would be his last in Chicago. Then that August, right around his birthday, his girlfriend broke up with him.
Looking back, Kakacek realized the move would have been “a terrible idea.” (He never actually wanted to live in L.A. anyway.) But it gave him a new perspective on Chicago after a lifetime here.
“I think a big part of recovering from that breakup was finding a new footing in the city, for me,” Kakacek said, squeezed into a booth with Ehrlich at their local dive, Rainbo Club. “Being like, ‘OK, I’m choosing to stay in Chicago,’ and why are those reasons.”
Kakacek’s near-departure inspired “Dandelions,” the lead single off Whitney’s album “Small Talk” (out Nov. 7). Over a shimmering swell of guitar and pedal steel, Ehrlich, the band’s lead singer and drummer, sings about falling “back in love with Central Time” — a charming re-committal to the city.
He and Ehrlich still share an apartment in Ukrainian Village, though they mostly use it for studio space these days. Ehrlich married a woman from Denmark earlier this year (they first met during an early Whitney tour and stayed in touch), and while he’s been spending a lot of time there, they’re figuring out immigration details for her to move to the U.S. Kakacek has a new girlfriend too — in the city, this time.
For Ehrlich and Kakacek — the primary members and songwriters for their seven-piece band — making “Small Talk” was a similar process of reconnecting with Whitney. After the electronic detour of their last album, 2022’s “Spark,” they returned to the soulful folk sound that had once been their signature, and built on it. And they did it on their own, self-producing the album for the first time. After a decade as a band, “Small Talk” sounds like a new peak for Whitney.
“I think a large part of this album was really digging deep into both me and Max’s souls and hearts, as cheesy as that sounds, to find what the actual heart of this project is,” Ehrlich said. “Like, find why we started it in the first place.”
Ehrlich and Kakacek formed Whitney as two roommates who wanted to start writing together after the rock band they were both playing in, Smith Westerns, broke up. Their 2016 debut album, “Light Upon the Lake,” became a hit beyond the indie scene with its sunny folk-rock; Elton John even called the band one of his new favorites.
Feeling pressure to build on that early success, Ehrlich and Kakacek returned to the same palette for their second album, 2019’s “Forever Turned Around.” But the writing and recording was much more difficult — giving the title a double meaning.
“We just felt really crazy finishing that record,” Ehrlich said. “We felt out of our minds. Our main takeaway after that was, we cannot make another record using the same sounds.”
So on their third album, “Spark,” they shunned their usual instruments and began experimenting with synthesizers, adopting a more contemporary pop-R&B sound. Ehrlich and Kakacek enjoyed the experiment, but critics didn’t agree. Pitchfork’s 5.8 review wondered why the album felt “so momentary, inert, or even monotonous.”
By the time they started working on “Small Talk” later in 2022, though, the pair felt refreshed. They made a few early demos in the same electronic style as “Spark,” but when it was time to record, Kakacek and Ehrlich went back to their usual guitar and drum kit. One of the results was the single “Back to the Wind,” which has a classic Whitney lilt, with a burst of trumpets building up to the chorus.
They knew they had the beginnings of a new record. More importantly, for the first time since their debut, they felt free to make whatever they wanted.
“This record is the sound of us truly not caring about outside perception,” Ehrlich said.
It helped that they were making the decisions alone now. Ehrlich and Kakacek considered producers for the album, but couldn’t decide who would add to the process, so they chose to self-produce. Their last producer, Brad Cook — who’s worked with Bon Iver and Waxahatchee — even told Ehrlich and Kakacek they were ready to go alone as they finished “Spark” together.
They recorded in Oregon, setting up shop at a gear-filled barn owned by Ehrlich’s dad. Without a formal studio setup or the cost of studio time, it was a casual process, with their trumpeter, Ziyad Asrar, engineering. Ehrlich wore athletic clothes most days and started growing a beard.
“It was just a lot more fun, generally,” Kakacek said. “Which is something that we really needed.”
In that comfort, they pushed themselves further than ever as a band. The explosive chorus of “Evangeline” (featuring singer-songwriter Madison Cunningham) sounds like nothing Whitney has made before. It started as a different song entirely, called “September.” They liked it, but thought it sounded a bit too familiar, so they decided to rewrite the chorus. Then, to match the new sentiment, Kakacek added synthetic timpani drums — chasing the same emotional build as when the orchestra enters in Neil Young’s “A Man Needs a Maid.” The choice felt weird at first, until the band realized it worked.
“I think that most other bands, and even younger versions of our band, wouldn’t have taken the time to double back and rewrite it and revise it,” Ehrlich said. “But I’m so happy that we did.”
Ehrlich and Kakacek have just started to work on new music since finishing “Small Talk.” (They’ve also been busy with a short Australian tour and anniversary shows at the Empty Bottle, and are preparing to tour Europe and the U.S. next year.) And again, unlike with past albums, their previous work isn’t dragging them down — it’s motivating them, giving them a clear vision of what their band could be.
“We’ve been writing songs that feel even stronger,” Ehrlich said. “Which I hope doesn’t cheapen the record that we’re releasing, but it feels like a good sign.”